Apple is investigating media reports of at least one iPhone exploding, a claim which does not stretch far from similarly reported iPod cases.

Media reports claiming that one or more iPhones
have exploded in Europe have led Apple to investigate, according
to Reuters.

One
such report includes the case of an 18-year-old iPhone user in France
who claims to have heard a hissing noise coming from his girlfriend’s
iPhone before it shattered. The teenager reportedly suffered
minimal injuries from the incident, which resulted in his eye
being struck by a piece of iPhone glass, as reported
by Google.

Helen
Kearns, European Commission Spokesperson for Consumer Affairs,
explained the following at a news briefing: "Apple has come back
to us ... and what they've said to us is that they consider these are
isolated incidents. They don't consider that there's a general
problem."

"They're
trying to get more information on the specific details of those
incidents, and they will do tests as necessary to investigate the
possible cause," Kearns added.

Although
the current media reports share a small amount of explosion cases for
the iPhone, numerous similar cases have been reported by users of the
iPod. According to Google, in late July, Seattle-based
television news station KIRO reported that an “alarming number”
of iPods had “suddenly burst into
flames and smoke,
injuring people and damaging property."

KIRO
reported on the existence of some 800 pages of iPod-specific
documents that included details on 15 burn and fire-related incidents
- none of which were serious - reportedly caused by iPods. The
Consumer
Product Safety Commission
pointed
out that this number of incident claims existed as low compared
to the significantly large amount of the millions of iPods that have
been sold.

KIRO eventually concluded that
overheated lithium ion batteries appeared to be the main cause of
these issues. After Apple implemented new battery technology,
incident claims lessened.

As
for the case of exploding iPhone claims, a spokesman for Apple Europe
Ltd. explained that Apple is aware of the media reports: "We
are waiting to receive the iPhones from the customers. Until we have
the full details, we don't have anything further to add."

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This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

In a similar vein, I have yet to hear of a Blackberry exploding, although it seems likely that there have been some incidents.

For what it's worth, my iPhone does run warm on occasion but it has not blown up on me or had any heat warnings or anything like that, and we are going on close to 60 straights days of 100+ F weather here in Austin, Texas :(

Only 1 of my friends with a phone has even experienced the heat warning, and he had been out on a boat all day with the phone exposed to a fair bit of sunlight. No explosion however.

My sample size includes about 25 people with iPhones so it is definitely smaller than the millions who own the phone. However my sample size is for a city that has got to be one of the hottest places in the US, consistently, this year.

I came across a very similar one before, probably it was the same incidence. There was a follow-up on the story. The guy killed was not due to explosion of battery but actually was an accident that a steel bar crushed onto the guy and also broke his ribs.The explosion of battery in mobile phone happens. From time to time I saw the news about the battery of mobile phone exploded. As far as I can remember, usually it involved 3rd party battery.